Some People in Oakland Are Now Spending Their Lunch Hour Dancing

If you’re getting bored of that daily tuna sandwich in your cubicle, it may be time to check out Lunch Beat.

What began as one hour of midday dance in Sweden has inspired an international following, with lunchtime dance parties including as many as 600 participating dancers. Local dancer Venus French organized Lunch Beat’s Bay Area debut on Thursday in downtown Oakland, where about 50 people paid $15 each to attend at In the Groove Studios.

Volunteers helped French transform the studio into a mini-nightclub, complete with a DJ and disco lights. Professionals in business attire and dance enthusiasts jumped, shimmied, and yelped to the music.

“[It’s] a roomful of people that are just totally loving dancing during the daytime, and really digging the opportunity to do something different on their lunch break,” French described the scene.

After dancing, participants noshed on cucumber mango salad and a vegetarian Indian dish called kitchari provided by a local culinary student.